China Trade Balance

China: Exports and imports grow at healthy rhythm in May

June 11, 2012

In May, exports grew 15.3% over the same month last year, which was well above the 4.9% rise observed in April and more than doubled market expectations that had shipments expanding 7.1%. Meanwhile, imports added 12.7% in May, after expanding a paltry 0.3% in April. The figure overshot the 5.5% increase expected by the market. As a result, the trade surplus reached USD 18.7 billion in May, up from the USD 13.0 billion recorded in the same month last year. The print came in well above the USD 16.5 billion surplus expected by market analysts and marked the largest surplus in four months.

Exports expanded 11.1% annually in January, coming in slightly above both December’s 10.9% increase and the 10.7% rise that market analysts had expected.
Meanwhile, imports surged to a 36.9% expansion over the same month last year in January, which overshot December’s 4.5% expansion.

The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP), fell slightly to 51.3 points in January from 51.6 points in December.

House prices in 70 large- and medium-sized cities rose 0.4% in December from the previous month, according to a weighted average index calculated by Thomson Reuters from data issued by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).